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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

ICBC cannot ask its employees to make up a pension funding shortfall by hiking their contributions, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Wednesday.

Photograph by: Nathan Denette
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Insurance Corp. of British Columbia cannot ask its employees to make up a shortfall in pension funding by contributing a larger percentage of their income, according to a judge’s ruling in provincial Supreme Court Wednesday.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that ICBC could not force trustees in charge of the pension plan to act against the interests of the employees by asking them to pay more than a cap of nine per cent of their income. That cap is federally mandated for all pension plans that are registered and regulated by the Minister of National Revenue.

The union, Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union local 378, had argued that it was ICBC’s obligation to make up any funding shortfall as mandated under the Income Tax Act and Regulations.

“(Pension plan insolvency) is being driven by a low-interest rate environment, basically, and many plans like the ICBC plan have got to meet this solvency test over very short-term periods,” said COPE 378 President David Black. “The problem is theoretical, it’s not a real-world problem, and I think governments need to take some action to change the regulatory framework to remove some of this unrealistic burden on pension plans.”

In 2001, ICBC and its union agreed to appoint six trustees to oversee the pensions of 4,600 unionized employees. ICBC appointed half of the trustees and COPE 378 the other three.

An actuarial valuation the ICBC pension plan from Dec. 31, 2011, which was accepted by the trustees, revealed that greater contributions would be needed to fund it properly, the ruling stated.

ICBC spokesman Adam Grossman told The Sun in an email that the corporation is still reviewing the decision before it determines whether to appeal. ICBC is not one of the 125 federally regulated plans placed on an insolvency watch list, he added.

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